Thankful for being an American
Thanksgiving is a cool holiday. Although I'm thankful throughout the year for what the good Lord has blessed me with, I enjoy gathering with family one day each year to give thanks collectively.
One of my greatest blessings is being an American citizen. Sure, I get pissed at our sex-crazed, consumer culture but, when I weigh the pros and cons, there is no other place I would rather live than the USA. Chi-Dooh Li, a Seattle attorney, feels the same way. Here is part of a letter he wrote, which appeared in this morning’s edition of the Seattle Times:
If you’re an immigrant like me, you’re having a hard time fathoming news reports about people who are seriously considering emigrating to Canada or elsewhere because George W. Bush has won re-election.
Certainly this country has all manner of things wrong with it. The imperfections in our political system, the imbalances in our economic system, the shallowness of our culture and our obsessively acquisitive consumer ethos provide ample fodder for any critic, domestic or foreign. The United States will become perfect the day our family dog learns to bark in French.
Even so, an immigrant visa to the United States is still the coveted dream of countless millions everywhere, regardless of race or creed, who love freedom and yearn for opportunity. Over many years of living, traveling and working abroad, that is the consistent message I have heard from more people than I can remember. Given their dream of anywhere to live in the world, they would choose America.
The Daily Mirror of London recently delivered a stinging slap in the face of President Bush’s supporters with the following banner headline under a full front-page picture of Mr. Bush: “How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?”
I’m willing to wager that, off the record, given the chance to emigrate here, most of the Daily Mirror journalists would have their bags packed before you could sing a chorus of “London Bridge is falling down.” I’ll go out on a hypothetical limb even further and venture that an offer of green cards to Islamic terrorists and their families, on the condition that they renounce terrorism, would seriously diminish the ranks of terrorist organizations that proclaim the United States as the despised Great Satan.
For it is a strange truth that those who most loudly voice their loathing of something secretly covet that which they claim to hate, and in their innermost thoughts are irresistibly attracted by the object of their hatred.
Paradoxically, we also know that often it is those who have most enjoyed the benefits of a free society who least appreciate it. I never cease to wonder at the disdain for this country shown by some who were born here and have lived here their entire lives. It seems not to occur to them that in the context of human history, what happens every four years in this country is nothing short of miraculous. A president is elected and the single most powerful office in the world is retained or transferred, without a single shot being fired and political opponents killing each other off. Even the intervention of the courts and much-maligned decision of the Supreme Court in the 2000 presidential election is preferable to the violence and corruption that permeates so many elections in other parts of the world.
If you are one of those making the move to another country, be sure to keep your U.S. passport. You’ll need it in a few months or years when you wake up to the fact that the grass really isn’t all that green in Canada or wherever.
This Thanksgiving Day I salute this, my adopted country. And I am unabashedly and profoundly thankful for the freedom and opportunity it has lavished on me. I too, can see warts and blemishes everywhere I turn. But I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here.
One of my greatest blessings is being an American citizen. Sure, I get pissed at our sex-crazed, consumer culture but, when I weigh the pros and cons, there is no other place I would rather live than the USA. Chi-Dooh Li, a Seattle attorney, feels the same way. Here is part of a letter he wrote, which appeared in this morning’s edition of the Seattle Times:
If you’re an immigrant like me, you’re having a hard time fathoming news reports about people who are seriously considering emigrating to Canada or elsewhere because George W. Bush has won re-election.
Certainly this country has all manner of things wrong with it. The imperfections in our political system, the imbalances in our economic system, the shallowness of our culture and our obsessively acquisitive consumer ethos provide ample fodder for any critic, domestic or foreign. The United States will become perfect the day our family dog learns to bark in French.
Even so, an immigrant visa to the United States is still the coveted dream of countless millions everywhere, regardless of race or creed, who love freedom and yearn for opportunity. Over many years of living, traveling and working abroad, that is the consistent message I have heard from more people than I can remember. Given their dream of anywhere to live in the world, they would choose America.
The Daily Mirror of London recently delivered a stinging slap in the face of President Bush’s supporters with the following banner headline under a full front-page picture of Mr. Bush: “How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?”
I’m willing to wager that, off the record, given the chance to emigrate here, most of the Daily Mirror journalists would have their bags packed before you could sing a chorus of “London Bridge is falling down.” I’ll go out on a hypothetical limb even further and venture that an offer of green cards to Islamic terrorists and their families, on the condition that they renounce terrorism, would seriously diminish the ranks of terrorist organizations that proclaim the United States as the despised Great Satan.
For it is a strange truth that those who most loudly voice their loathing of something secretly covet that which they claim to hate, and in their innermost thoughts are irresistibly attracted by the object of their hatred.
Paradoxically, we also know that often it is those who have most enjoyed the benefits of a free society who least appreciate it. I never cease to wonder at the disdain for this country shown by some who were born here and have lived here their entire lives. It seems not to occur to them that in the context of human history, what happens every four years in this country is nothing short of miraculous. A president is elected and the single most powerful office in the world is retained or transferred, without a single shot being fired and political opponents killing each other off. Even the intervention of the courts and much-maligned decision of the Supreme Court in the 2000 presidential election is preferable to the violence and corruption that permeates so many elections in other parts of the world.
If you are one of those making the move to another country, be sure to keep your U.S. passport. You’ll need it in a few months or years when you wake up to the fact that the grass really isn’t all that green in Canada or wherever.
This Thanksgiving Day I salute this, my adopted country. And I am unabashedly and profoundly thankful for the freedom and opportunity it has lavished on me. I too, can see warts and blemishes everywhere I turn. But I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here.